Edition No. 20 - Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme
Edition No. 20 - Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme
Edition No. 20 - Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme
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4<br />
<strong>Exchange</strong> News<br />
“When I heard about Borneo Chic, at first I wanted to work with them purely for<br />
business interests. But then when I heard about their noble cause, I was interested to help<br />
in their mission for the long haul.”<br />
4<br />
Photo courtesy of Widhi Bek<br />
These were the words of renowned fashion designer, Musa Widyatmodjo, who<br />
is assisting the Borneo Chic (BC) brand in preparing a new hand bag collection<br />
and in the marketing of BC products. Musa shared his sentiments in the recent<br />
Borneo Chic shop launch last April 14, <strong>20</strong>11. The shop is situated in the Jakarta<br />
art center -- Kemang.<br />
Other than Pak Musa, Ernie of Yayasan Dian Tama gave the opening remarks<br />
and told the audience about the mission of the Crafts Kalimantan Network, an<br />
initiative launched by 5 NGOs in Kalimantan, and how the Borneo Chic brand<br />
was developed to elevate the image of indigenous weaving traditions through<br />
more modern expressions in a collection of handbags. Handicraft production<br />
is a benign source of livelihood from forests – forests which are threatened by<br />
extractive industries that plague Kalimantan’s ecosystem.<br />
Ernie’s talk was followed by a 3 minute TV commercial prepared by Gecko Studios.<br />
We were also luckily accompanied by weavers Ibu Luek, a Dayak Bentian and Diana, a young Dayak Iban as they shared<br />
their stories about their crafts, their communities and their experiences and thoughts working with BC.<br />
Diana mentioned that “Before selling products to Borneo Chic we had to make very large mats to sell. It would take a long<br />
time before we could make money. <strong>No</strong>w BC buys smaller mats that are converted into bags and we get higher prices for these<br />
smaller mats!”<br />
Over 100 people graced the event from NGO friends, to craft aficionados to media personnel. We hope that with increased<br />
design and marketing capacity, sales from BC products will encourage indigenous weavers of Borneo to continue with their<br />
craft, an intrinsic part of the heritage of Borneo and the Dayak people.<br />
The Borneo Chic Shop is found at the Ke-kun Coffee Shop, 99A Jl. Bangka Raya Pela Mampang, Jakarta Selatan 127<strong>20</strong>.<br />
Contact the Borneo Chic Shop at +62-21-7183-240 or visit the website www.borneochic.com<br />
Cando Craft Shop opens in Phnom Penh:<br />
Taking culture and tradition of the hinterlands to the city<br />
The CANDO Craft Shop, opened its doors to its partners and growing customer<br />
base in Cambodia’s city capital, Phnom Penh. The CANDO Craft Shop is a business<br />
effort of the Cambodian NTFP Development Organization (CANDO), who founded<br />
and is managing a social enterprise programme - the CANDO Craft Center – in<br />
Ratanakiri province, northeast of Cambodia since <strong>20</strong>08.<br />
The CANDO Craft Center (CCC) aims to create economic development<br />
opportunities primarily indigenous men and women artisans from Ratanakiri<br />
province and other vulnerable producer groups and communities under fair<br />
production and business partnership arrangements. As a social enterprise<br />
programme, CCC’s emphasis is on respect for both culture and the environment,<br />
the promotion of craftsmanship and fair business practices, and on building<br />
synergies among the indigenous artisan communities and the locally-run CCC<br />
social enterprise.<br />
Photo courtesy of CANDO<br />
CCC products come under the CANDO Craft brand, ranging from traditional and<br />
indigenous-handwoven cloth, scarves, table-runners, bamboo and rattan traditional<br />
baskets and boxes, and functional and more contemporary-designed converted products such as bags, purses, notebooks<br />
and diaries. CCC’s bestsellers are its natural dyed textile, which has significantly improved in quality as part of CANDO’s crafts<br />
development and capacity building activities especially within the last year.<br />
The CANDO Crafts shop opening was made possible through the support and participation of CANDO in the Creative<br />
Industries Support <strong>Programme</strong> (CISP) supported by the UN-Spain Millenium Development Goals Achievement Fund.<br />
Congratulations to CANDO!<br />
CANDO Craft Shop is located on #190A, St. 155 (<strong>20</strong>0meters south of the Russian Market), Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is open,<br />
Monday-Saturday 8am-5:30pm. Coming soon: http://www.candocraft.org and http://www.candodevelopment.org of<br />
Cambodian Wild Honey {SAHAKREAS CEDAC press release}.